Saturday, January 28, 2017

Abridging the Free Press.

Congress shall make no lawrespectinganestablishment of religionorprohibitingthe freeexercisethereof, orabridgingthe freedom ofspeechor
of thepress, or the right of the
peoplepeaceablytoassembleand topetitionthe
government for aredressofgrievances.

Vladimir Putin does it, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is does it, so too does Kim Jung Un.With
just one week in, Donald Trump seems headed in the same direction.Here in the United States of America?What’s to stop him? Ah that pesky First Amendment protecting
freedom of speech and of a free press. Even
so, apparently White House Senior Counsellor Steve Bannon missed that class in
his civics course leading him to assert that the press “should
keep its mouth shut”.Perhaps he
also forgot that he is no longer lord of Breitbart but a government official.That’s the same government to which his boss
pledged allegiance on January 20 and to which he himself swore specifically to “support
and defend the Constitution of the United States” two days later.

It seems clear now that the Trump administration is
bent on subverting or restricting any voices that might disagree with or question
it.First came the then President-Elect’s
attack on the intelligence community and now, in office, their assault on the
press.Press secretary Sean Spicer used
his very first appearance before them in the White House Brady Press Room to
berate the press for denying that Trump’s inauguration crowd was the largest
ever.When challenged on this, Kellyanne
Conway defended his contention as presenting “alternative facts”.Considering that “alternative facts” are in
fact untruths – in this case record crowd size claims debunked by aerial photographs –
we must all be deeply alarmed when they are being spouted not only by his aides
but by the president himself. To put it
bluntly, Obama may have been falsely called a liar by Rep. Joe Wilson in 2009,
but sadly the title does fit for this president and his inner circle.

Attacks on the press and the fostering of “alternative
facts” are two ominous signs since both have characterized authoritarian dictatorships.What’s frightening is that Donald Trump’s
campaign already evoked such associations, which is one of the reasons many of
us believed he could never be elected in this democracy.It was frightening then and is part of what set
us on edge on November 8.Now we have
good reason to feel that our worst fears are coming to pass.In many ways, these fears have been further reinforced by his executive order imposing a ban on some Muslims entering the
country, probably
illegal under U.S. law.Making the
discriminatory nature of his ban even more egregious, the NY
Times reported, “Mr. Trump also established a religious test for refugees
from Muslim nations: He ordered that Christians and others from minority
religions be granted priority over Muslims”.Reflect again on the text and spirit of the First Amendment.

In one disastrous week, Trump has sown the seeds of
trade wars, further alienated one of our closest neighbors, raised the specter of
heightened Muslim-Christian tensions and sought to thwart the Founding Fathers
by ignoring the Constitution to which he swore allegiance.This is not a matter of disagreeing with
policy, something good people can, and often should, do.This is a potential threat to everything we
hold dear.It is a commander-in-chief
raising his middle finger to the women and men who have spilled their blood
across the globe defending the flag upon which he now treads.

Republicans met this week to plan ahead for the
government that they now control.If I’m
right that our democracy is under threat, then these Americans in particular
are facing perhaps their greatest test.So,
too, is our Supreme Court facing what could be its greatest test, certainly in
the post-Civil War era.Will both
legislatures and the judiciary treat checks and balances seriously or will they
become a rubber stamp?From what we’ve
seen thus far, the press is not rolling over, not keeping silent.Will our elected and appointed officials step
up as well?We the people will be
watching.We will remain in verify mode
for at this juncture we have absolutely no reason to trust.

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About Me

A branding consultant with decades of experience working with large global clients and brands, he now serves primarily young startup companies. Beginning his professional life as a rabbi of a large urban congregation, he has watched the numbers of the religiously unaffiliated grow in the years since leaving the pulpit. His book, Transcenders: Living beyond religion and the religion wars (available on Amazon) considers this phenomenon. Beyond his consulting practice Prinz spends much of his time writing, including this Blog. He posts to "Beyond All That" only when there is something to say that might add value to the conversation.